French Grand Prix 2021: Race start time UK, practice, qualifying and how can I watch F1 on TV?

Philip Duncan20 June 2021

Max Verstappen will hope to extend his F1 World Championship lead as he starts on pole at today’s French Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver finished 0.258 seconds clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton in qualifying on Saturday with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas third at the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille.

Sergio Perez will start fourth in the other Red Bull ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly.

Hamilton has bossed the past two editions of the French race, winning both rounds from pole, but the seven-time world champion has not had an answer for the pace of Red Bull and Verstappen here this weekend.

Hamilton, using Bottas' old chassis following a planned rotation of parts, has not been entirely at one with his machine, complaining in practice on Friday that there was something wrong with his car.

So he will take some comfort from joining his title rival on the front row. Nevertheless it is Verstappen, who should have won in Azerbaijan a fortnight ago before he suffered a tyre blowout with just five laps remaining, that heads into Sunday's race as the favourite to extend his four-point advantage.

There were fist-pumps in the Mercedes garage with Bottas taking third to split the Red Bulls.

Here’s all the information you need to tune in...

When is the 2021 French Grand Prix?

The French Grand Prix is scheduled to take place today - Sunday, June 20, 2021 at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Practice was across Friday and Saturday, with qualifying on Saturday.

What time is the 2021 French Grand Prix?

The race itself is scheduled to get underway at 2pm BST this afternoon.

How can I watch the 2021 French Grand Prix?

TV channel: The race will be shown LIVE on Sky Sports’ Main Event and F1 channels.

The race coverage starts at 12.30pm BST.

Live stream: Subscribers can stream the action LIVE via the SkyGo website and app.

Qualifying result in full

1. Max Verstappen, Netherlands, Red Bull Racing, 1 minute, 29.990 seconds.

2. Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain, Mercedes, 1:30.248.

3. Valtteri Bottas, Finland, Mercedes, 1:30.376.

4. Sergio Perez, Mexico, Red Bull Racing, 1:30.445.

5. Carlos Sainz Jr, Spain, Ferrari, 1:30.840.

6. Pierre Gasly, France, Alphatauri, 1:30.868.

7. Charles Leclerc, Monaco, Ferrari, 1:30.987.

8. Lando Norris, Great Britain, McLaren, 1:31.252.

9. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Alpine, 1:31.340.

10. Daniel Ricciardo, Australia, McLaren, 1:31.382.

Eliminated after second session

11. Esteban Ocon, France, Alpine, 1:31.736.

12. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Aston Martin, 1:31.767.

13. Antonio Giovinazzi, Italy, Alfa Romeo Racing, 1:31.813.

14. George Russell, Great Britain, Williams, 1:32.065.

Eliminated after first session

15. George Russell, Great Britain, Williams, 1:33.060.

16. Nicholas Latifi, Canada, Williams, 1:33.062.

17. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Alfa Romeo Racing, 1:33.354.

18. Nikita Mazepin, Russia, Haas F1 Team, 1:33.554.

19. Lance Stroll, Canada, Aston Martin, 2:12.584.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in